How beautiful is life?

If you think that people are "ethnocentric" now, you really need to take some world history classes.It was way, way, way, way worse in the past.

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I wish I could give someone a better life.

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Stop wishing and do it.

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Does that dispute the fact that it happens or that ppl that deserve a better life don't get it?

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You have recognized that there is a problem.That's good.If you want to help people have better lives, then DO SOMETHING to help them have better lives.Just wallowing in the realization that life can be harsh for many does none of those actually living in harsh conditions any good at all.Stop talking about it here and go volunteer somewhere.

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lol
why don't you?

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I regularly volunteer at a battered women's shelter. I regularly donate to charitable organizations. I work for a business that is very socially conscious and is very active in our community.

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You could do it full time.

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No, I can't because I don't have parents paying the bills like you do, so I have to work for a living.

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I'm telling ppl that theres hope for a place where they don't get broken to the bone.

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Yeah, whatever.Get off your backside and go volunteer to help some people make their lives better NOW if you are so concerned about their lives NOW.Gee, I wonder if you actually want there to be lots of suffering in the world so that someone even cares about an afterlife.I mean, if everyone had a great life, then we wouldn't feel cheated or dissatisfied and need to wish for something better later and you wouldn't get much success, would you?

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You guys are being idiots, I don't want there to be any suffering.

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The fact is that there is "lots" of it.

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If there wasn't any suffering, would people be more or less likely to want relif from suffering in the afterlife?

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I know christianity is fading out in America and rich countries, but by judging on recent elctions in the US it may be on a temporary upswing.

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So, Christianity is about killing thousands in a needless war and by advocating the death penalty, even against mentally retarded people and children?

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And scraf (sic) the difference between me and you is that I'm not going to conform to society and after college I will do it full time.

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You aren't going to have to work for a living?What, are you a trust fund kid or something?So, what do you do NOW to help people get out of their miserable lives?This message has been edited by schrafinator, 05-15-2005 10:02 AM

You really didn't answer any of my questions, Chris.You just sidestepped them.

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As for comfort in the midst of tragedy, some of us need more than the belief that we are the winners of a huge cosmic lottery and have no real significance in the same universe that we claim to be gaining understanding over.

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Speak for yourself.I certainly have "real significance" to many people.My husband, my siblings, my nieces and nephews, to my coworkers, to the customers that I help every day, to the people at the shelter I help, to my friends.I don't know if I have any kind of "cosmic significance", but as I can never really know the answer to that question, I just don't even try to answer it.It frankly seems like the need of a fragile ego to have to "be significant" in a cosmic or eternal sense.What's so meaningless about being significant to the people around you?

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Because according to atheism, everything is just dust soon anyway.

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...which is why it's so important to have as positive an impact on the people you encounter as you can.It's the love you show to people that lets you live beyond your natural years.

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You equate dancing the good dance in the here and now as infinitely more important than preparing for an eternal future.

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What's the difference, really?

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Unlike Judaism, one does not become a Christian simply through a few rituals and a name badge.

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Hmm, I thought that converting to Judaism was a LOT more difficult, requiring months of study to ensure you really understand the religion and the commitment involved, whereas one can become a Christian in a few minutes of being "saved".

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Here is a bold quote from ISA about empiricism:
"Empiricism is self-contradictory. It says all our knowledge is by sense perception but Empiricism itself can't be known by sense perception."

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...and yet, it works better than any other method we have ever discovered for providing us with reliable, useful information about the natural world!

Well, rather than the word "trust", WRT science, I would use the more specific concept of "results that anyone can obtain, regardless of personal belief".That's powerful when a system can be that useful and that universal.